Friday, February 27, 2009

BTC Commentary: I guess the idea here is that if you take the time to make an expensive, tech savvy card, those who intend to fake it to break the system will find a way. The rest of us shouldn't put up with the addded costs and the hassles managed into our already overcomplicated lives.

Two men face charges after allegedly using fake TWIC ID cards to work at the Port of Fourchon, LA.

The men, Ernesto Cordova, 25, and Roosevelt Amores, 32, were reportedly charged with illegal entry into critical infrastructure, in addition to invalid driver’s license charges after a security employee noticed several misspelled words on the fake TWIC cards.

“It was a pretty good duplication,” Callais told the Houma Courier. “Only with the trained eye would you see there were some differences between that and a regular TWIC.”

The men also are under suspicion for being the in U.S. illegally, the Courier newspaper also reported.

According to the article, Harbor Police Chief Jon Callais said that the guard’s port training helped him zero in on the suspected workers.

The Courier article didn’t say how many days the pair had used the fake TWIC cards to illegally enter the port, but the Port of Fourchon had been requiring TWIC cards for access for nearly a month at the time of arrest.

Police said the men worked for the Danos and Curole offshore-service company.

Callais told the New Orleans City Business publication in 2007 that Port Fourchon was vulnerable to terrorism at that time because it had “no cargo tracking system, no incoming vessel identification, no gates and no way to track workers.”

The state of Utah would thumb its nose at federal requirements of the 2005 REAL ID Act under provisions of a bill that passed the House on Thursday.

The mandate of the U.S. Congress, crafted by the Department of Homeland Security, calls for states to come into an initial level of compliance, including specialized photography to aid facial recognition software and the establishment of an accessible database, by 2010, with further requisites to follow.

Under provisions of HB64, sponsored by Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem, the Utah Driver's License Division would be prohibited from implementing the requirements of REAL ID — a move Sandstrom said many states have already made.

"Utah … would be joining 21 states that have done the same thing," Sandstrom said. "This really is the framework for all kinds of government intrusion in our life."

Rep. Bradley Daw, R-Orem, testifying in support of the bill told the body that complying with REAL ID was not a simple, or inexpensive, task.

"It is not a minor change to the driver's license," Daw said. "The quote is anywhere from $20-80 million … we should be able to manage our driver's licenses the way we see fit."

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

AUSTIN- According to a staffer for Texas State Representative Richard Pena Raymond, DPS approached the Vice Chair of the Appropriations committee for funding to implement Real ID in the State of Texas and was firmly denied.